The Philippines is 12 hours ahead of EDT

Monday, April 28

The President travels to Manila, Philippines, and participates in an arrival ceremony at Malacanang Palace

Later that afternoon, President Obama meets with President Benigno S. Aquino III of the Philippines

President Obama participates in a joint press conference with President Aquino

The President greets members of the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines

Later that evening, the President attends a State Dinner with President Aquino at Malacanang Palace

****

Tuesday, April 29

In the morning, President Obama delivers remarks at Fort Bonafacio

Later that morning, the President participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Manila American Cemetery

The President travels back to Washington, D.C.

****

Text of the President’s remarks on Donald Sterling

With respect to the statements by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers — for our Malaysian audience, this is a sports team, basketball team in the United States. The owner is reported to have said some incredibly offensive racist statements that were published. I don’t think I have to interpret those statements for you; they kind of speak for themselves. When people — when ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk. And that’s what happened here.

I am confident that the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, a good man, will address this. Obviously, the NBA is a league that is beloved by fans all across the country. It’s got an awful lot of African American players. It’s steeped in African American culture. And I suspect that the NBA is going to be deeply concerned in resolving this.

I will make just one larger comment about this. The United States continues to wrestle with a legacy of race and slavery and segregation that’s still there — the vestiges of discrimination. We’ve made enormous strides, but you’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often. And I think that we just have to be clear and steady in denouncing it, teaching our children differently, but also remaining hopeful that part of why some statements like this stand out so much is because there had been — there has been this shift in how we view ourselves.

And like Malaysia, we constantly have to be on guard against racial attitudes that divide us rather than embracing our diversity as a strength. And I know that the people of Malaysia are committed to wrestling with those issues as well. We have to make sure that we stay on top of it — and we will.

A poll released Wednesday offers yet another data point showing the politics of Obamacare aren’t as set in stone as the conventional wisdom would have you believe. Embracing Obamacare isn’t necessarily a political loser, and obstructing it isn’t necessarily a winner. The New York Times/Kaiser Family Foundation poll surveyed four Southern states that will help determine control of the Senate this fall. It earned headlines for finding the Democrats in better shape in the Senate races than most would have expected. But it also assessed the popularity of four governors who have taken vastly different approaches to Obamacare — and the findings are a direct contradiction of the narrative that the law is a loser, plain and simple, especially in states like these.

The poll showed Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D), who expanded Medicaid under the law, are hugely popular. Their approval ratings are more than 20 points higher than their disapproval ratings; Beebe holds 68 percent approval, and Beshear is at 56 percent. But Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) are at best treading water with their constituents after they declined to expand the program to cover low-income residents.

Northerners may be a little shocked that anyone could feel a bit nostalgic for slavery, in the manner of the government-hating Nevada rancher, Cliven Bundy. But in the South, such sentiments are hardly unheard of, even if they are usually muttered in private over a few bourbons rather than spoken at a news conference. Occasionally, in fact, they are expressed or embraced by public figures. A particularly relevant case started about 14 years ago, when Maurice Bessinger, owner of a chain of South Carolina barbecue restaurants called Maurice’s Piggie Park, began distributing pro-slavery tracts in his stores. One of the tracts, called the “Biblical View of Slavery,” said the practice wasn’t really so bad, because it was permitted in the Bible. It argued that many black slaves in the South “blessed the Lord” for their condition, because it was better than their life in Africa.

When the tract was discovered, Mr. Bessinger was denounced and his restaurants boycotted. Many retail stores pulled his distinctive (to be kind) yellow mustardy barbecue sauce from their shelves. But one prominent South Carolinian decided to stand up for Mr. Bessinger. Glenn McConnell, then a state senator from Charleston, stocked the sauce in his Confederate “art gallery,” which was loaded with secessionist flags and uniforms, as well as toilet paper bearing the image of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. When a local power utility banned its trucks from the parking lots of Piggie Park, Mr. McConnell threatened a legislative vendetta against the company. Mr. Bessinger died in February. Mr. McConnell is now the lieutenant governor of South Carolina.

President Obama’s Townhall At Malaya University

(forward to 25 minutes)

****

****

Jackie Calmes: In Poorest States, Political Stigma Is Depressing Participation In Health Law

Inside the sleek hillside headquarters of Valley Health Systems, built with a grant from the health care law, two employees played an advertisement they had helped produce to promote the law’s insurance coverage for young, working-class West Virginians. The ads ran just over 100 times during the recent six-month enrollment period. But three conservative groups ran 12 times as many, to oppose the law and the local Democratic congressman who voted for it. This is a disparity with consequences. Health professionals, state officials, social workers, insurance agents and others trying to make the law work for uninsured Americans say the partisan divisions and attack ads have depressed participation in some places.

the GOP must be very proud to have convinced some uninsured that the ACA comes with tracking chips and death panels. nytimes.com/2014/04/27/us/…

They say the law has been stigmatized for many who could benefit from it, especially in conservative states like West Virginia that have the poorest, most medically underserved populations but where President Obama and his signature initiative are hugely unpopular. Steven L. Shattls, chief executive of Valley Health, a network of 28 health centers, said his organization would like to rerun its ad before November, when enrollment resumes. But he also conceded, “We have limited resources.” Republican candidates and the so-called super PACs supporting them have made assailing the Affordable Care Act their No. 1 issue for the midterm elections

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Michigan’s voter-approved ban on affirmative action in admissions to the state’s public universities reinforces an ugly reality: that most Americans support affirmative action only when it is for whites and no one else. Nearly every time American rhetoric privileges states’ rights, it leaves marginalized groups open to even bolder discrimination than they already encounter. Michigan is simply reminding us that the South has never been the only place where Americans believe that whites are the only ones who should enjoy equal protection. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s 58-page dissent is a painfully necessary document that asks the nation to live up to its creed, but we desperately need to take this conversation in another direction. Rather than focus on the disadvantages of groups hurt by this decision, Americans must confront the unearned advantage of whiteness that inspired Michigan’s Proposal 2 in the first place. In short, Proposal 2 — and every instance of the sort of rhetoric that aligns with it — amounts to a declaration that setting a quota for whites of at least 75 percent is the American way.

The nation’s most effective, and palatable, affirmation action has always been for whites. In the early days of the republic, how else could land have been distributed to whites and not to Native Americans? The requirement for land was being white; the government set it aside for whites. How else could whites have secured the vast majority of land in the South (where blacks often outnumbered them) after Emancipation? The Homestead Act of 1863 and other government programs ensured that land was set aside for whites. How else did 98 percent of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans granted between 1932 and 1962 go to whites? Numerous historians have shown that the federal government sanctioned discriminatory practices that ensured that access to home ownership was set aside for whites. And those homes not only enabled whites to build wealth; they also provided access to public schools that prepared their children for college. The same principles shaped the years after World War II. Thus, while G.I. Bill benefits yielded college degrees and small businesses for whites, black and brown veterans more often returned home to collect insult and injury.

“Five million people lost their coverage around the country.” That quote comes from John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Republican Party Committee. But if you’ve heard Republicans and their allies make the case against Obamacare, then you’ve inevitably heard some version of this. In some tellings, the number is 6 million. Sometimes conservatives cite this figure as proof that, on net, the number of Americans with insurance will decline because of the Affordable Care Act. That’s almost certainly not true, as a recent series of surveys have shown. The study, which appears online at the journal Health Affairs, is by Benjamin Sommers, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Using data from the Census Brueau’s Survey of Income Program and Participation, or SIPP, Sommers found that, historically, the non-group insurance has tended to have lots of churn.

Yesterday my insurance cost dropped $269/month under the ACA. Thank you to everyone who voted for Obama, & screw you to those who didn't.

In English, that means few people hold onto non-group policies for very long—typically, it’s just a transitional phase, while they are between jobs that provide insurance directly. In the sample that Sommers examined, the number of people who still had the same policy after just four months was already less than than two-thirds; after one year, it was down to 42 percent; after two years, it was down to 27 percent. So what does that tell us about Obamacare? According to Sommers, it suggests that most of the people who got those cancellation notices probably would have dropped existing coverage within a short time anyway. Sommers says that 65 percent of the people in his study had incomes below 400 percent of the poverty line, which means they’d be eligible for tax credits that make non-group insurance less expensive than the sticker price. That makes him skeptical about the extent of “rate shock”

Come on, fellow liberals. Calm down. I guess maybe it’s fair to call Cliven Bundy a racist. That “picking cotton” business put it over the top, and wondering whether they were better off under slavery. Even Sean Hannity, Bundy’s greatest media champion, threw in the towel last night: He wanted it to be “abundantly clear,” Hannity said at the top of his show, that he found the remarks “downright racist,” “repugnant,” “beyond disturbing,” and so on. OK, so Bundy’s a racist. It’s fine to point that out. But point up the fact that he’s a registered Republican? That’s where I draw the line, friends. I mean, come on. That’s just a coincidence. Total cosmic coincidence.

Just like it’s a coincidence that one federal judge who sent an email around to friends saying that Obama’s father was a dog happened to be a Republican. Complete and utter accident of fate, the puny matter of his voter enrollment. Those rancidly racist T-shirts and posters one sometimes sees at Tea Party rallies? They’re just a coincidence, too. I mean, Tea Party people might not be Republican, strictly speaking, and it’s totally unfair to assume that! OK, Tea Party candidates run in Republican primaries, not Democratic ones, and the Tea Party caucus in the House doesn’t include one Democrat. But still. Guilt by association!

There is no more birth control at the flea market. And if there ever were abortion pills, they’re long gone, too. At the Rio Grande Valley’s biggest outdoor market, known as la pulga, locals can buy car parts and fertilizer, watermelons out of a pickup, a parakeet, an iPhone case or stickers from their favorite Mexican fútbol team. But since this flea market was among several raided last August over suspicion it was selling abortion pills, if you even ask for birth control you’ll hear voices lower to a fearful whisper. You’ll be sent to the vendor who sells nuts, or the women selling jewelry. On a recent afternoon, all those destinations were a dead end. “Not anymore,” a woman whose table bore aspirin and homeopathic remedies said in Spanish. She shrugged. “Obama wants us to have more babies.” In fact, it wasn’t the federal government that raided four flea markets’ thriving illegal pharmaceutical trade, making undocumented residents that much more terrified to shop in them. The Sheriff of Hidalgo County, who took the lead, didn’t find any abortion pills, but he did charge nine people with selling prescription-drug contraband like diet pills and Viagra from Mexico.

We've reached a truly remarkable moment: a Koch Bros group is attacking Obamacare for not being liberal enough on.msnbc.com/1mDTI6m

The arrests came a month to the day after a front page New York Times story about how the state’s new omnibus law restricting abortion – the one Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis famously tried to block – was expected to close the Rio Grande Valley’s two abortion clinics.The combined crackdown by state and local authorities in Texas has done more than make it harder for the women of the Valley to get an abortion. They’re now having trouble getting any reproductive health care at all, since the same state legislature that shuttered the abortion clinics also slashed family planning funds and closed family planning providers. And Texas’ refusal to expand Medicaid means its distinction as the uninsured capital of the United States isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, making the state’s broader health care crisis even worse.

Voter ID laws, which require voters to show a photo ID at the polls, reduce voter turn out among young voters, low-income voters and people of color — all of whom are groups that tend to prefer Democrats to Republicans. Arkansas’ voter ID law is also unconstitutional, according to a state trial court’s decision handed down on Thursday. As Judge Timothy Davis Fox lays out the controlling law in this case, the constitutionality of Arkansas’ voter ID law isn’t even a particular difficult question. The Arkansas Constitution provides that “[n]o power, civil or military, shall ever interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage; nor shall any law be enacted whereby such right shall be impaired or forfeited, except for the commission of a felony, upon lawful conviction thereof.” This law impairs the free exercise of the right of suffrage.

Gov. Steve Beshear announced the almost-final enrollment numbers for Kentuckians gaining access to health care coverage under Kynect before the spring deadline, in which a staggering 413,410 people — 9.6 percent of all Kentuckians — now have health insurance. Roughly 300,000 of these people previously did not have health insurance, and 52 percent of Kynect enrollees are under the age of 35. Sen. Mitch McConnell is beating the drum of repealing Obamacare “root and branch,” though he occasionally slips up and talks about a “fix.” Where this stance becomes dicey for him is when he’s asked what he would do for those 413,000 Kentuckians who have health insurance through Kynect, 300,000 of which were previously uninsured, if he succeeds in repealing the ACA. When cornered with this question, McConnell usually goes into talking points mode to avoid specifics, but last week His Swaggerness got McConnell to bite. Asked what he would do for terminally ill Kentuckians who would lose their new insurance if the ACA is repealed, McConnell actually presented what appears to be a specific answer

Thinking about friend who died waiting to be approved for Medicaid. She could have lived. That won't happen to folks now. Thank you #ACA.

McConnell is referring to here is Kentucky Access, the state’s former high-risk pool that helped provide insurance on the private market for Kentuckians who were otherwise turned down by insurance companies due to their pre-existing condition. The program operated from 2001 until the end of last year, when it was rendered moot by the ACA. However, Kentucky Access was not very popular, as it was still too expensive for people to buy insurance. In 2013, only 3,988 Kentuckians gained coverage through the program — which did not provide the same consumer protections under the ACA — with the average basic premium for an individual being $680 a month, and the most popular plan with a pharmacy rider having a monthly premium of $1,118 for a male aged 64.

On the other hand, these same people — and hundreds of thousands more — can now gain coverage through Kynect, along with a subsidy to reduce their premium cost and new consumer protections that make their insurance more valuable if they have a medical emergency and cover the costs of basic check ups and screenings. What McConnell is essentially saying is that we should just go back to the way it was before, with vulnerable Kentuckians having to rely on expensive insurance through an unpopular program that did not provide the same protections they have now. Kynect? 413,000 Kentuckians signing up for insurance in the exchange shows you what a popular insurance pool looks like. And yes, 413,000 is greater than 4,000.

President Obama visits with patrons who were playing bridge in a backroom at Jerry’s Family Restaurant in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, April 27, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

****

First Lady Michelle Obama hugs children of Executive Office employees at the White House’s annual “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work” day, April 27, 2011

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk across the South Lawn of the White House as they depart for Chicago to film a segment on the Oprah Winfrey Show, April 27, 2011

President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Marian Robinson walk with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley from Air Force One to Marine One at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Ill., April 27, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama chat with Oprah Winfrey during a taping of the Oprah Winfrey show, April 27, 2011, at Harpo Studios in Chicago

****

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk across the South Lawn before boarding Marine One at the White House April 27, 2012

President Obama and wife Michelle share a moment while meeting with military families at the headquarters for the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division in Fort Stewart, Georgia to sign changes in the GI Bill, April 27, 2012

****

President Obama at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, DC on April 27, 2013

This football harmony, while long desired by me, is actually unsettling. When my world starts to shift and shake I generally get a bit nervous. I’m definitely reminded of the aphorism – ‘be careful what you wish for’. In this case I’m not sure how to behave. Do I accept it as change, or do I keep looking over my shoulder fearing the hidden, yet imminent, explosion? Ve-rrrry unsettling.

Who would have thought that a gun-toting rancher who thinks he can graze on public land for free because “I don’t recognize the United States government as even existing” would also be a racist? So weird.
.
.
When you watch Fox you’ll see story after story about welfare queens and food stamp cheats and all the other schemers and scammers who are taking your hard-earned money away from you. And you’ll be told, again and again and again, that racism against black people is but a fading memory, while the false accusation of racism is something liberals and blacks use to keep the white man down.

Conservatives didn’t invent Cliven Bundy, but when he rushed to their embrace they encouraged him and applauded him and made him into a national figure. He’s theirs, down to his last ugly thought.

Chipsticks, you are being unfair to Danny and to us! While you’re busy watching “football”, you’re depriving Danny the opportunity to be outdoors perfecting his swimming techniques and depriving us of seeing pictures of Danny frolicking in the water. Shame!

What has brought the Bundy’s and Sterling’s out of the woodwork? (updated) [Go read it in its entirety, please. This is a snippet]

Lately it can feel like: another day, another racist unleashed. All the oxygen these days is being soaked up by the recent remarks of Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling. But the truth is – over the last few years we’ve been exposed to a pretty endless stream of this noxious stuff.
(snip)
Lacking any rational response, the entitled are left with only their hatred and fear. It has been unmasked and no longer lingers underground. The question that leaves for the rest of white Americans who are observing all this is: Now what? Are we really going buy into the need to “take our country back” to fighting over our perceived entitlement? Or are we ready to exorcise that fear and let it go? Its up to us.
…………………….//

Another snippet from the above article:
UPDATE: WOW! Deadspin just published more of the conversation between Sterling and his girlfriend. It demonstrates exactly what Jensen was saying about entitlement. At one point she reminds Sterling that his basketball team is made up of mostly black players. Here’s his response:

I support them and give them food, and clothes, and cars, and houses. Who gives it to them?
OMG – its not that these players EARN money that they then spend on food, clothes, cars and houses! Oh no – Sterling GIVES it to them

Does anybody else see the same parallels (why the madness is coming out of the closet now) between Russia and Ukraine? Putin can no longer rely on the perceived threat of Russian dominance to have his way with Ukraine. Their failed rhetoric is exposed in the internet and other social media; the ground has shifted, their are new prevailing norms and Putin has no meaningful allies.

For Putin, Sterling and Bundy – the old ways were better. But the old ways do not work in this age of “Obama”.

Well said. We are seeing what the President’s global and domestic presence is doing to those who have to be brought kicking and screaming into the 19th century, from Putin to Sterling and beyond (including those who haven’t popped up from under their rocks and bridges yet). I wish we could just sit back, relax, and watch it all play out, but we know we must stay closely involved ourselves.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, no matter how exhausting it all is. There’s a big light shining on the President to keep him from being exhausted, no doubt. I so admire him.

Here’s what *I* think about this DannyO business, carried over from the previous post. (Apologies for the SP quote that got attached here instead because I was trying to multitask.) 😉

/whisper/ I think she doesn’t really want to share the posting accolades with him – he does such a great job – so she sets him up (/softer whisper/ like she does you ladies with wet O) and that way he gets grounded too often for us to fall irrevocably in love with his style. Think about it and see if you don’t agree with me. Every time he does a great job, the next day he’s grounded or has lost a privilege. Very fishy!

sooo Sterling thinks that “he gives them” these things… they don’t actually work for it… and of course they “give” him nothing. He sorta needs “them” if he wants to continue being filthy rich. ALL racists really are the stupidest people. As POTUS says, their ignorance (bullshit) speaks for itself.

Sherijr, it will come as a great surprise to anyone who earns a salary–especially athletes who train hard all their lives–that they are “given” material things by their employers, rather than earning the means to buy them, if they choose. You’d have to go back pretty far in history to match an attitude like this. Even the robber barons knew better.

yep he’s quite the pig, imo. I also need to comment on the fact that I have never seen the word “allegedly” has frequently as I have in conjunction with Donald Sterling’s comments. Media must fear this guy.

Although I don’t post often I lurk enough to know eveyone quite well. I breifly want to share my views on the Bundy Ranch situation and why I think the BLM pulled back.

After witnessing the way then Senator Barack Obama ran his presidential campaign and the way he has handled his opponents these past six years, his remarks regarding allowing the ignorant to have their stage has proven to be their downfall time and again. Though we may never know who gave the order for the BLM to pull back, but I can only think whoever it was had foresight to see what the Bundy supporters were trying to draw the Feds into.

The BLM pulling back allowed Americans to see true ignorance on display. It also allowed for the facts of the case to come forth. With Waco the Federal Government never truly made their case clear to the public why there was a need to go in. This allowed time for RW fanatics to highjack the message.

As I stated earlier, I don’t know who gave the order for the BLM to pull back. But the results of that decision caused Sean Hannity and the GOP to formaly denounce the very platform they’ve pushed for over a decade.

As the old adage goes, “Give your enemy enough rope to hang themselves”, and President Barack Obama can give college lectures on this life lesson.

Interesting thoughts and I bet you are right on. I had wondered about that, but you expressed it perfectly. There’s now been lots of info on how much the government charges per cow vs. privately owned; info about how the other ranchers pay what they owe and never complain, etc. I’ve always liked that adage of giving people enough rope to hang themselves. As you said, PBO can give college lectures on this life lesson. 🙂

Bobfr, Never give up what you are doing. They listen. Be constant in making your points to them. Trust me. Your words and letters mean so much to so many people. The time is not wasted. Keep putting your voice in the space. Angels listen and delivers your messages. You speak for goodness for all peoples, and that message goes a long way, and it does reach those who can take it even further while on this journey. Thanks for all that you do, Bobfr. HZ

Concur, jacquelineoboomer. Bjw2, you are so insightful and your well of wisdom in your comment is very well taken. Trust me, a lot of brilliant thought-actions were taken and very guided steps in that exchange..

If I haven’t said Hey y’all yet, Hey Y’all! Am so far behind. Oh well, I’ve been absorbing the energy in all these amazing photos! I have a question about the statement in LEO Weekly quoted above: “last week His Swaggerness finally got McConnell to bite.” I’ve read the article thru, and still don’t know who ‘His Swaggerness’ is. Anyone, help? ps: it’s very painful to read anything mcfallable has to say, the very idea of him is so repulsive. I know, I know…

“If you control oil, you control an economy,” she said, according to video of the speech posted on You Tube. “If you control money, you control commerce. But if you control arms, you control the people.”

McCain should be flogged in a public square. This quote can actually be used against them…I hope some crafty ad agency does just that!

Following the uproar over audio revelations of a racist rant by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, it is worth noting that Sterling’s racism is nothing new and should come as no surprise. Reprinted—with some edits—here is the essay on Sterling I wrote for my 2010 book Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love. It is out of date insofar as the Clippers have gone from being a sad-sack franchise to contending for the 2014 NBA title, but everything else holds. Hopefully it will give some insight into a man who has become, in the words of Magic Johnson, “a black eye for the NBA.”

It takes a certain flair for racism—a panache for prejudice—to find yourself facing two different racial discrimination lawsuits simultaneously. Meet Donald Sterling, the owner of the most unspeakably malodorous franchise since the Cleveland Spiders: the Los Angeles Clippers. Since Sterling’s purchase of the club in 1981, his team has by far the worst record in all of the National Basketball Association. The Clippers have made the playoffs only four times in Sterling’s twenty-eight years as owner, never advancing past the second round of the playoffs. It’s been said that the NBA should rename its annual players draft “The Donald Sterling Draft Lottery.” He was named the worst owner in sports by the writers at ESPN.com because of his complete disregard for fielding a winning team as long as he could turn a healthy profit. It stands to reason why in 2000 Sports Illustrated named the Clippers “the worst franchise in professional sports.”

But Sterling transcends the stereotypical Scrooge-like miser. He is so much more boorishly colorful than just a man trying to fill his coffers while snoozing in the luxury box. Sterling is like a side character in a James Ellroy noir novel. He is ruthless and toothsome, a man who unabashedly reinvented himself in Los Angeles’s healing sunshine. Former LA Mayor Tom Bradley once said, “People cut themselves off from their ties of the old life when they come to Los Angeles. They are looking for a place where they can be free, where they can do things they couldn’t do anywhere else.”

That well sums up the tale of Donald Sterling. His real name is Donald Tokowitz. After moving from Chicago as a child, he came of age in the rough and tumble Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles. Donnie Tokowitz was the only son of an immigrant produce peddler. As a young boy, he worked boxing groceries at the local grocery stores and showed a talent for saving money. “As a kid, Donald never had enough of anything,” said a friend. “With him, acquiring great wealth is a crusade. He’s psychologically predisposed to hoarding.” His mother was not impressed with his ability to hustle a dollar and insisted that he go to college and become a lawyer. Young Mr. Tokowitz worked his way through Southwestern School of Law, graduating at age 23. To help pay his way through, he worked nights selling furniture. It was there that he changed his name to Sterling. “I asked him why,” a coworker told Los Angeles magazine. “He said, ‘You have to name yourself after something that’s really good, that people have confidence in. People want to know that you’re the best.’”

Jay’s Team picks the reporters to ask questions from the US side whenever POTUS is abroad. Like a robot, Chuck Todd and Co never fail to ask their rightie laced heavy talking points diatribe masquerading as legitimate questions.

“When an individual, a leader or a country takes something personally rather than viewing it as being in the way of business, that makes the situation far more dangerous because the usual options others have for countering actions taken on the basis hard-headed calculation fall away.

Still worse, such shifts from a business-like approach to one driven by personal feelings mean not only that those who make it are likely to violate their own interests at every step of the way but also that anything anyone else does will be interpreted by them not as part of the ebb and flow of life but as a personal challenge – and behave even worse.

clip

According to the Russian commentator, Putin has created a situation in which “there are no autonomous and competent political institutions. Today, all power belongs to one man, and as is well known, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, especially if the individual involved is not completely firm of mind.””

Bob, this article is terrifying. It portrays a man whose pathology has overcome his reason. Putin is acting like a feudal lord and demanding the kind of personal loyalty from people that isn’t appropriate for this age. He’s not only losing his grasp of reality, he’s going backwards in time.

Agree with you, Jackie. He is a very dangerous, very unstable dude. Chancelor Merkel’s assessment of him occupying a ‘different world,’ was as diplomatic away as she could have said – ‘the dude is dangerous and nuts.’

If I’m not mistaken, Sterling has given to Democrats. The Right could easily turn around and say “See, a Dem racist!!11!11!!” But, no. The need to dismiss blatant racism is so ingrained in the Right that it’s fallen into line behind Sterling. And that’s why it will lose.

Wow, finally getting caught up on all of the posts of this overseas trip. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE provides more comprehensive coverage of the work our president is doing, particularly when overseas, like TOD. I’ve run out of superlatives. So just another heartfelt Thank you Miz Chips, NW and the TOD BTs.

Poor, poor feckless “Chuckles” Todd. Trying sooo hard to play “serious journalist” and our illustrious Prez treats his questions like the sweet pitch over the home plate and smacks it out of the park. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Our president on the world stage, used the question to elevate the discussion way beyond the crude salaciousness of yet another exposed racist to a teachable moment… We must not let racial animus divide us. Diversity is our strength. I. LOVE. MY. PRESIDENT. He is doing as Mighty Pamela put it a few posts back the #LightWork with unfailing grace no matter where is he.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson